Watching CNN the other day when they featured a story about shirt rivalries in Thailand. It’s the red shirts versus the yellow shirts, with the red shirts supporting their former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. To all Filipinos watching this, it all looks very familiar. We had our own version of these shirt rivalries during the…
Category: insights
Back to Reality
I’ve done it! I’ve gotten rid of my addiction (!) to all these social networking sites! I’ve gotten rid of Friendster a few months ago and now, I think I’ve started getting rid of Facebook and Twitter. For a while there, all I did was check (spy) on people, look at pictures, reply to statuses…
Fear of Touching Metal
I think I’ve recently developed this fear of touching metal. It’s weird I know. I think it started a few weeks ago when I get static almost every time I touch anything metallic… the door knob… the hand rail… even my window pane. At times, it feels powerful too, it’s scary. Now, every time I…
Yosi Kadiri
Just as when I was close to considering smoking as another social networking tool, JR East decided that starting April 1, they will no longer allow smoking and all smoking areas will be removed from their platforms. Goodbye smokers. Good riddance. I hope more establishments follow suit, especially that McDonald’s store near my station. I…
Managing Risk
This afternoon, I was talking with my colleagues about managing risk in our system and how introducing too many changes can lead to a lot of risk. I pointed out that the less changes we make, the less risk, though unfortunately, the less rewards. One even pointed out that too much risk-taking eventually led to…
I am Austronesian
In school, we Filipinos were taught we were descendants of seafarers from Malaysia and Indonesia. They came to the islands in boats and later occupied lowlands forcing the aborigines to the mountains. This made sense because majority of Filipinos do share similarities with Indonesians and Malaysians. Recent research though show a different story. It’s the…
Two Week Battle
February 23While at work, my body started shaking and I started feeling very weak. I was in Otemachi at the time and didn’t know where the nearest clinic was. I decided to just take the rest of the day off, go home and rest. February 24I woke up early hoping I’d feel better. I didn’t…
Bee-ta Bay-ta
I am changing the way I pronounce “Beta”. I’ve always been pronouncing beta as “bay-ta” as this is the pronunciation I learned from the Philippines. But after working with a lot of people from different cultures and different countries, I learned that “bee-ta” is more common. Looks like Americans and Filipinos tend to pronounce it…
Dichotomy of Contentment
On one side, people need to be content to be happy. On the other, people should never be content to remain motivated. It’s a never-ending balancing act.
Kulang
The other day, Rico and his longtime friend from University were walking from work on their way to Tokyo Station. “Nung nasa university tayo ito na yung pinangarap natin no?” commented Rico. “Ang magtrabaho sa pinakamalalaking kumpanya sa isa sa pinakamalalaking financial centers ng mundo.“ “Kaya nga eh no.” his friend replied. There was a…
Birthday Soul Searching
I just had my birthday yesterday and birthdays always make me do a little soul searching. It seems this year’s theme is motivation: what motivates me. Money? Friends? Family? All of the above? None of the above? I just know it’s not money. Money was a big motivator. I’ll admit to that. I left the…
Enrico in Tokyo 